


Underneath your family tree

by deepestbluest



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, and co-signed by me, this is just a love letter to umino iruka and it's signed hatake kakashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22125097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepestbluest/pseuds/deepestbluest
Summary: Kakashi’s student is looking to him for answers, looking to Kakashi to find the better path he’s talking about and prove it exists, and Kakashi can’t do it. The one thing he should be able to do as Sasuke’s teacher is beyond him.Or: Kakashi tries to keep Sasuke from leaving, but this time he doesn't try to do it alone.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 42
Kudos: 537





	Underneath your family tree

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from "When You Break" by Bear's Den
> 
> I'm sure there are a thousand versions of this concept, but my inner thirteen year old reminded me Naruto exists a couple weeks ago and demanded I return to a show I stopped keeping up with around the time Shippūden started. I thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane, which this almost was?

The aftermath of the mission to the Mist makes one thing absolutely clear to Kakashi: Sasuke can’t be left as he is. Kakashi had thought someone else should do this, but the appearance of Sasuke’s Sharingan disabuses him of that plan. He sees Sasuke considering the physical reminder that he’s one of the two remaining members of his clan the entire journey back to Konoha, and there’s no mistaking the identity of the “certain person” he wants to kill.

The boy isn’t pushing himself toward darkness yet, but only because he doesn’t know how. They can’t afford to leave his future to chance.

It takes some finessing to get Sasuke alone. Most of the work, Kakashi happily farms out to Umino Iruka. Talking to him had been useful for confirming how to handle Naruto- if Kakashi had thought to ask him earlier, he might have saved himself a few awkward near-meltdowns from Konoha’s loudest ninja.

When he asks Iruka about helping handle Sakura and Naruto, Iruka gives him a knowing look. “Ah, you want me to keep Sakura and Naruto occupied so you can talk to Sasuke alone.”

Kakashi pauses in the middle of flipping through his Icha Icha book, momentarily caught off-guard. He hadn’t thought he was being that obvious.

The bartender brings their drinks over, and Iruka huffs a soft laugh.

“I know my students, Kakashi-san,” he chides. It’s surprisingly gentle coming from a man with a well-earned reputation for publicly ripping into everyone short of the hokage- and not entirely biting his tongue with the Third. Kakashi’s half-tempted to blame him for Naruto’s chronic noisiness.

Unaware of Kakashi’s mental assessment, Iruka continues, “Sasuke’s naturally very gifted as a shinobi, far more than any of classmates, except possibly Sakura when she's applying herself, and as his teacher at the Academy, it was my job to ensure he learned how to begin applying those gifts.” He sighs. “Maybe, if he’d taken to me, I could have reached out to him. I’m only chuunin-level Iruka-sensei, I’m afraid. None of my strengths are what he wants.”

Sasuke wants power so he can kill Itachi, he means, and Iruka, who can’t kill, doesn’t have enough. Not in Sasuke’s eyes.

Not in most shinobi’s eyes.

Kakashi watches Iruka take a slow drink. “Unlike Naruto.”

“Unlike Naruto,” Iruka agrees. “So yes, I’ll keep Sakura and Naruto busy tomorrow. I suppose all that’s left is to ask if that’s all you wanted to ask of me.”

Again, Kakashi finds himself wrong-footed. “You think I’d ask for more, Sensei?”

“Well, he may not want me to be his family like Naruto does, but I did spend time as Sasuke’s teacher. Even gifted students need guidance sometimes.” Iruka quirks a brow as he sips his drink. “You already know it makes sense to ask a student’s last instructor what his impressions were. Even if he’s wrong, you might learn something.”

Once, Kakashi overheard a chuunin describe getting caught in one of Iruka’s pranks back when he was a student. It hadn’t been much, just a balloon full of glitter that unexpectedly exploded in a hallway.

“It wasn’t the prank itself that got to me, though, you know? The glitter took forever to wash off, but it really wasn’t that bad,” the man said. “No, the thing that gets me is that after it went off, I stepped through the doorway and right into the girl I had a crush on. I’m still not sure if he did that on purpose.”

Kakashi finds himself unexpectedly relating to that feeling. Is Iruka just acknowledging the simple fact that Kakashi isn’t a good teacher and never thought he would have to be, or did he spot Kakashi’s growing fears that he’s a very good teacher- but of the things he doesn’t want his team to learn?

“I’m not one to turn down advice,” Kakashi tells him. His own drink stays on the bar. “Anything you’d care to impart, Iruka-sensei?”

Iruka nods, and when he turns to face Kakashi fully, his expression is as somber as Kakashi has ever seen it. “You know better than most that shinobi, even genin, stop being children quickly. Try to remember that that isn't entirely true. Their experiences don’t negate that- they still think like children. With Naruto, it’s easy to see him as a kid, and until she decides she isn’t interested in Sasuke anymore, Sakura will act like one as well. Try to remember that Sasuke needs someone to hold his hand sometimes, too.”

Kakashi nods. He’d already figured as much, but like before, it’s good to hear Iruka confirm it.

The fact that Sasuke apparently never warmed to Iruka is telling. Kakashi just has to figure out what it’s telling of.

He has time to figure it out, though, so for the rest of the night, he gently prompts Iruka for stories from his team’s time in the Academy and enjoys the warmth of Iruka’s smile as he recounts each member’s earliest victories.

* * *

Sasuke regards Kakashi with the same suspicion Naruto regards him. The two boys have such vastly different personalities and move through the world so differently, but when it comes to Kakashi, they wind up in the same place.

Kakashi knows more than they do. They want to know what he knows. They just aren’t sure they trust him to teach them everything.

They also aren’t sure if everything he tells them is true.

Those are good instincts. They’ll need to be wary to survive, especially Naruto.

Sasuke doesn’t mention that Kakashi’s an hour late. Iruka came and collected Sakura and Naruto at dawn; Kakashi has been watching the bench where Sasuke’s been waiting since before any of the genin arrived. He’s watched Sasuke force himself not to show he’s angry.

“Ready to train, Sasuke-kun?” Kakashi asks brightly, wandering over.

Without Sakura and Naruto yelling about Kakashi’s belated arrival, Sasuke’s muted, “What are we doing today?” sounds feeble.

“We’re going to do something every shinobi hates.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrow, but he still looks interested.

Kakashi reminds himself that while this boy isn’t Obito, he isn’t the man Itachi became either. There’s a path forward for him that isn’t soaked in someone’s blood.

At Sasuke’s unhelpful but not unexpected silence, Kakashi puts as much warmth in his voice as he can as he says, “We’re going to talk.”

* * *

Sasuke, of course, doesn’t want to talk. He goes through a series of expressions from surprise to scorn to disbelief, all of which culminate in Kakashi being given the stink eye from a kid less than half his age.

“Don’t worry, Sasuke-kun; we’ll be working on your chakra, too. That Sharingan won’t be very useful to you if you can’t figure out how to use it.”

“But I have to talk or you won’t teach me,” Sasuke extrapolates. He looks bored.

It isn’t quite convincing, though.

Kakashi smiles. “Exactly!”

For a moment, Sasuke looks ready to argue. Instead, he crosses his arms and gives Kakashi a mulish look. “Then let’s talk.”

 _He really is a lot like Naruto sometimes,_ Kakashi thinks. _I don’t know what’s harder not to laugh at- the twelve year old scolding me or the twelve year old trying to placate me._

“Oh, we aren’t going to work here, Sasuke-kun. We’re still shinobi.”

“Then where-”

Kakashi points over his shoulder at the woods nearby. “I hope you brought your climbing shoes.”

Sasuke mutters something under his breath that sounds a lot like, “Shinobi don’t have those,” which Kakashi kindly overlooks.

* * *

Sasuke is chakra-walking backwards down the tallest tree trunk Kakashi could find, slowly navigating around the branches as Kakashi wanders around the trunk just out of reach, when Kakashi breaks the silence.

“What do you like about your teammates?”

Sasuke coughs and briefly loses his balance. Kakashi watches him carefully until he’s regained his balance.

“What do I like about them?” Sasuke echoes. “Nothing.”

Kakashi doesn’t sigh. He’s too well-prepared. “Really? You don’t like anything about them? That’s very sad, Sasuke-kun.”

“How is it sad? I have one goal, Sensei. Naruto and Sakura aren’t part of it. I never pretended otherwise.”

“I’m sure that’s how it is.”

“No, that’s exactly how it is,” Sasuke snaps. He slips a little on his next step.

Kakashi pulls out a kunai and spins it around his index finger. “I see, I see.”

Sasuke doesn’t reply.

Kakashi waits a couple seconds, just long enough for Sasuke’s chakra to find balance, before he speaks again. “I’m sure your harsh words now will make Sakura understand when she finds out you didn’t trust her to help you avenge your family.”

Sasuke looks away from Kakashi sharply- directly into the sun. He fights the instinctive flinch but doesn’t quite manage to stop himself.

_Naruto would have enjoyed seeing that._

“She’s just a girl,” Sasuke says confidently. “She’ll like someone else.”

“Ah, but she’s a girl on your team. She’s trained with you. She’s fought beside you.” Kakashi puts the kunai away. “You’re right, though. There are other boys for her to like. I’m sure you’ll hear all about the fun she and Naruto had today helping one of Iruka’s chuunin friends. He’s only a year or two older, but he’s already been on a few A-rank missions. Sakura probably forget all about you. Or she won’t. Maybe she’ll stay in love with you even after you hurt her. I wonder which would be worse?”

Sasuke doesn’t take the bait. His chakra waivers but ultimately stays steady as he continues walking down the tree trunk.

“But Sakura’s an independent girl, isn’t she?” Kakashi continues. “Her parents aren’t shinobi, but she made it this far, didn’t she? She must be very resilient. Don’t you think?”

Sasuke pointedly looks toward the side of the tree Kakashi isn’t on. “Probably.”

“Probably,” Kakashi pretends to agree. “We can't say that about Naruto, though, can we?”

Again, Sasuke’s chakra wavers, but he keeps it under control.

“He almost killed Mizuki for hurting Iruka, you know. And he was going to kill that boy in the Mist for killing you. I wonder how he’d feel if you told him he wasn’t worthy of helping you. I doubt he knows much about Itachi, but if he found out, I bet he’d have a few thoughts for a man like him…”

“It’s not like he’d know about family,” Sasuke snaps. His feet wobble as he picks up speed, obviously trying to escape to the end of the exercise. “He’s never had one.”

Kakashi hums his agreement and quietly steps toward the side of the tree Sasuke’s facing. Iruka is the closest Naruto has to a relative. Perhaps the Third as well, in a distant sort of way. “I suppose that explains why he thinks we’re one, doesn’t it?”

Sasuke whirls around to face Kakashi but loses control over his chakra and begins to fall.

Kakashi catches him a moment before Sasuke catches himself.

“What do you want?” Sasuke asks. He shifts away from Kakashi. “Why does it matter what Sakura and Naruto think?”

“I don’t want to see any of my cute students get hurt.”

“Sensei,” Sasuke growls. In time, the sound may become threatening. As it is now, Kakashi brushes it aside like a fly.

“Teamwork is about more than accomplishing a goal together,” he says; he doesn’t let Sasuke get away with not looking at him this time. “Whether you accept it or not, we’d all be hurt if you left us, Sasuke-kun.”

Without waiting for a reply, Kakashi skips backwards down the rest of the tree trunk.

Sasuke follows him, and his chakra only feels a little unsettled.

* * *

Kakashi continues to fix Naruto and Sakura up with other shinobi. Ebisu takes them for a few days. Genma has them for another couple. Kotetsu comes next. Even Anko looks after them for an afternoon, though Kakashi gets the feeling he should apologize to them for that.

He hasn’t pushed the topic of Sasuke’s quest for vengeance. Sasuke is the type to mull over problems. Unlike Naruto, who needs to be hit over the head a few times before he spouts the first heartfelt answer that comes to him, Sasuke will come to Kakashi when he’s ready to argue.

Until then, Kakashi directs their one-on-one lessons toward teaching Sasuke how to make use of a team. The two of them go on low-level missions, which Kakashi has Sasuke run.

That’s why, he reflects tiredly, the two of them are waist deep in a stagnant pond.

“You need to stop thinking of using me as a last resort,” Kakashi reminds him. The water is warm and somehow thick as he wades through it in search of a rich person’s mislaid treasure box. “We wouldn’t have collided if you’d given me clearer instructions.”

“I didn’t realize I needed to tell a jounin to think before he leaps,” Sasuke grumbles.

“You won’t always be working with your brilliant jounin-sensei, Sasuke.” Kakashi sighs. “Sometimes you’ll be working with Naruto. Or you’ll work with someone you aren’t used to- if you and Kiba or Ino had to work together, you’d have to find a rhythm quickly. The fastest way to get your team hurt in the field is to assume they understand you.”

“So I should assume they don’t? Isn’t that the opposite of what you’re trying to teach me?”

With his back turned and his mask up, it’s safe for Kakashi to smile. Two weeks ago, Sasuke would have assumed that was what Kakashi meant, or decided it was. He’s begun to ask questions. “Maybe. Or maybe I’m telling you to remember that sometimes, it’s good to be forthright about what you need.”

Kakashi’s foot knocks into something at the bottom of the waterbed, and with a heavy heart, he says, “Either this is the treasure box or someone else is hiding things in ponds.”

* * *

“He’s starting to think about it now.”

Iruka is grinning at Kakashi. Dinners together have become a ritual. Besides knowing Team 7, Iruka is interesting on his own, and when there aren’t children getting hurt or adults with bad handwriting getting in his way, he’s surprisingly companionable.

When he smiles, the edges of the scar across his nose lift with his cheeks. He has a cute face that only gets cuter with his frequent blushing.

“I could never get him to listen to me for more than a few moments of instruction, but he’s listening to you.”

There’s nothing but relief on his face. Kakashi had been bracing himself for hurt feelings, but Iruka’s smile hasn’t faltered.

“How do you figure he’s listening, Sensei?”

“He came to see me.”

Kakashi considers that as he stretches, working out the kinks in his spine from having to crouch in a tunnel with Sasuke for three hours before he came here. They’re making progress, but Sasuke still doesn’t let himself lean on Kakashi like he should. “He did?”

Iruka nods. “He asked me about my parents. It seems someone mentioned to him that his old teacher might know something about dead families and blame.”

There’s no point in denying it. “I did suggest that he try to be subtle.”

“It’s a point in Sasuke’s favor that he knew not to,” Iruka says lightly. He doesn’t share what he told Sasuke, and Kakashi doesn’t ask. “You’re buying the drinks this time.”

An hour later, Kakashi does pay for them, right before he helps a subdued and not quite drunk Iruka back home.

* * *

“Iruka-sensei’s an interesting man, isn’t he?”

They’re meditating today. Or, to be more accurate, Sasuke is trying to meditate while Kakashi simulates the chaos of battlefield conditions by bothering him.

As expected, Sasuke tenses. “He told you, didn’t he?”

“He’s been helping me with the three of you for a while.”

“You aren’t answering my question.”

“And _you_ aren’t meditating.”

Sasuke huffs, but a moment later, Kakashi feels the shift in Sasuke’s chakra as he goes back to centering himself.

“He’s a lot like Naruto,” Kakashi continues. “You must have picked up on that, though. There aren’t many people who are that blunt and that loud, much less shinobi. I’m not surprised you didn’t take to him. He isn’t a very accomplished ninja- the opposite of one, really.”

It’s true, and it isn’t.

“I went on a mission with him once when he first made chuunin.” Sasuke’s interest is obvious; Kakashi pretends it isn’t. “He almost got us killed. He has the one trait that’s worse than Naruto’s noisiness, the one thing any shinobi in the field can’t have. Any guesses what it is?”

“No killing instinct,” Sasuke answers.

Kakashi tosses a pebble at him and hits his forehead. Sasuke yelps and slaps a hand to his face, his eyes flying open and his hand reaching for his kunai.

Kakashi stole the bag about ten minutes ago.

“You’re right, but you’re supposed to be ignoring me,” he points out.

Sasuke sighs but drops his hand and closes his eyes again.

Kakashi lets him have a few minutes of peace before he picks up where he left off. “You had more presence just now in response to your teacher hitting you with a pebble than Iruka had at someone pressing a knife to his throat. That’s why he’s a teacher- we survived, and he asked the Third to let him teach instead of fighting. There aren’t many shinobi who would willingly admit they can’t do what we’re raised to do.”

Sasuke’s chakra flickers. He’s getting impatient.

“I say Iruka and Naruto are the same, but that isn’t quite right,” Kakashi continues. “Naruto has the same instincts you and I have. Unlike us, he doesn’t like it, though, and for him, that’s a good thing. For Iruka, it’s a good thing not to be bloodthirsty.”

Above them, a giant, fluffy cloud floats by. It reminds Kakashi of Pakkun. He thinks about the contract he made with his ninken as he lets Sasuke chew on the information Kakashi gave him.

What sort of contract could Sasuke make? Would he be able to lean on a summon in a way he can’t lean on humans?

In the silence Kakashi is letting stretch, Sasuke asks, “If he had to pick, do you think Iruka would save Naruto or me?”

_A very Sasuke question._

“He’d pick Naruto,” Kakashi tells him. Sasuke already knows the answer, after all. He’s just testing Kakashi, trying to catch him in a lie. “And then the guilt of failing you would eat him up.”

Sasuke opens his eyes, the better to scoff at Kakashi. “He doesn’t like me that much.”

Kakashi shakes his head. “You’re very set on hurting yourself, Sasuke-kun.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re only listening to some of the words so you only have to hear what you want to hear.” Another cloud rolls by. This one looks like a shuriken. “Teachers can only teach if their students listen, you know. You don’t think he has anything else worthwhile to teach you, so you don’t listen to him.

“Naruto didn’t need Iruka to show him how to be a weapon. He already knew enough about hatred. He knows he isn’t the monster everyone calls him. He needed to learn how to be loved, and he needed it to come from someone who could have hated him.” 

Sometimes, Kakashi wonders if having a teacher’s love isn’t a hindrance. None of his teachers had any for him. They didn’t have any for anyone, and as far as Kakashi can tell, the other teachers at the Academy don’t bond with their students like Iruka does.

Then he’ll remember that Naruto found a way to learn a technique he never should have been able to use and used it on an impossible scale to save Iruka and the question remains unanswered.

Below the shuriken cloud rolls one without a shape. “You already know how to be loved; that’s why you’re angry. Iruka can’t help you with that, and he knows it. So he lets you learn from another teacher.”

“You really think you can do better?”

If Kakashi were an optimist, he’d say Sasuke sounds hopeful.

“Well, at least if there are two of us, we don’t have to choose who to save, do we?”

Sasuke doesn’t answer, and his chakra doesn’t so much as flicker.

Kakashi lets him meditate for another twenty minutes, then throws one final pebble at him.

“Come on,” he says as he gets to his feet. “It’s time for lunch.”

* * *

Sasuke begins to backslide about two months in. Kakashi knew he shouldn’t expect Sasuke to see beyond himself without hitting any rough patches, but he finds himself getting angry anyway.

“And what if you do kill Itachi?” he hears himself argue. “Don’t you think your friends would want to be there to see you find peace?”

Sasuke glares at him. “You already said I won’t find peace.”

“That’s true. But they don’t know that. All they’ll know is their friend left them behind.” Kakashi rubs at his eye. His head is killing him; after a long day of being screamed at during their mission because Sasuke kept trying to ignore him, he doesn’t have the stamina to argue without wanting to be ill. “But back to my question. Let’s assume you do kill him. What will you do after that?”

Sasuke hadn’t thought of that; Kakashi can see the confusion on his face.

“After?” Sasuke asks.

There’s a limit to every genius, and hatred is one hell of a hell of a set of blinders.

“You’ll be a rogue nin,” Kakashi reminds him. “If you leave the village to kill Itachi without orders from the hokage, which you won’t get, you’ll be the last of your clan and a traitor to Konoha. Our people will come after you, and you’ll have to kill them. After all, you won’t be brought back alive, will you?” He keeps his voice light, which he knows annoys Sasuke, which means what he’s saying will stick with him. “So, you’ll kill them or you’ll put yourself at another village’s mercy. Well, I suppose you could also kill yourself. All of those are sad endings, though, Sasuke-kun.”

Sasuke doesn’t reply for a moment. “There are sadder.”

“That’s true. You could fight him on your own and die alone with no one even holding your hand. Your body would be lost wherever he left it, and your friends wouldn't even get to say goodbye.”

“So I should just let Itachi live?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then what should I do!”

Sasuke looks up at him, and as Kakashi looks back, he feels his gut twist at the sudden, unshakable knowledge that this is what being a teacher means.

Kakashi’s student is looking to him for answers, looking to Kakashi to find the better path he’s talking about and prove it exists, and Kakashi can’t do it. The one thing he should be able to do as Sasuke’s teacher is beyond him.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “But I can tell you that you have friends who want to go with you. Itachi will still be there in a few years, after you’ve had time to grow strong. Don’t be in such a hurry to die, okay?”

Sasuke doesn’t meet his eye, so Kakashi leans back and looks up at the sky. “And you’ve got a team leader, too, you know. He wants you to be happy.”

Sasuke shifts, and Kakashi can feel his discomfort. They’ve fought enough for today. “Well,” he adds, “he also doesn’t want to get yelled at by your Academy teacher for letting one of his students run off and get himself killed, so maybe he’s just selfish.”

“Iruka-sensei would be fine if Naruto was okay.”

Apparently only one of them is done fighting.

“Don’t get so caught up in Iruka,” Kakashi drawls. “Like I said, he and Naruto get along because they’re the same type of person. It’s easier to show you care with someone you understand. That’s why it’s easier for us- you’re like me.”

“That isn’t a compliment.”

Sighing, Kakashi dips his head in acknowledgement of his student’s continued irreverence. “I guess it isn’t. But you know, Naruto needs to be yelled at by his beloved teacher to drown out all the hateful things people have yelled at him. You don’t need to drown anything. You need to learn how to float. Iruka had to learn how to do that- no one hated him, but he was still alone. If you asked him, I bet he’d help.”

He doubts Sasuke will accept the advice, but it’s worth trying.

* * *

“I gave up on meaning it when I praised him,” Iruka admits over dinner. “All Sasuke hears is praise. He’s a genius, and he knows it. Calling him smart didn’t get him what he wanted and he didn’t react to it, so I stopped. It felt cruel, but he never seemed to notice.” He drops his head. “I got so used to Naruto shouting for attention that I overlooked my other students.”

Iruka is mostly right about Sasuke not needing praise, but he’s thinking of Sasuke as an Academy student. Given that what Sasuke wanted was power, Iruka wouldn’t have given it to him if Iruka had wanted to.

“I’m going to reintegrate the team,” Kakashi says rather than try to untangle a knot Iruka isn’t ready to untangle. “Naruto and Sakura have been improving; I think they’re ready to push Sasuke.”

Iruka huffs a watery laugh. “Naruto will enjoy that.”

“So will Sakura, if I do it right.”

“You will.”

“I don’t know where you get that confidence.” Kakashi lets out a long breath. “For all I know, I’m pushing Sasuke away from Konoha even faster.”

“I’m a teacher,” Iruka says simply. “It’s my job to see bright futures.”

Kakashi shakes his head, and Iruka slowly lays a hand on Kakashi’s arm.

“The hardest part of teaching is knowing that your students will make their own choices. Maybe my students will make Konoha a village of greater esteem. Maybe they’ll become missing nin or worse. All I can do is tell them I see good in them and point them toward it. The rest is up to them.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“You know, for someone who hounds his student day in and day out for seeing only a grim future, you’re very determined to tell yourself this won’t work,” Iruka points out. “Keep looking for the good Sasuke needs to see. You’ll find it. And when you do, all you can do is step back and trust in the student you’ve raised.”

Kakashi studies Iruka for a long moment. He’s almost tempted to lift his hitai-ate to study him with the Sharingan- he knows Iruka isn’t artificially making him believe he can help Sasuke- but keeps his hands and his headband in place.

“Does that work for you?” he asks instead.

Iruka lets out a whoop of laughter. “Nope! But it sure sounds nice!”

* * *

“A dear friend gave it to me.”

Sasuke frowns at him.

“That’s how I came to possess a Sharingan despite not having Uchiha blood,” Kakashi clarifies. They’re sitting on the remains of a boulder they were practicing on earlier. This was their last training session before Kakashi brings Naruto and Sakura back, though Sasuke doesn't know that. “I had a friend who was an Uchiha, and he gave me one of his eyes.” Kakashi considers the phrasing of that for a moment before he amends, “He bequeathed it to me, really.”

The weight of Sasuke’s attention feels almost corporeal. “That’s an odd thing to give someone when you die.”

“It is,” Kakashi agrees. “And I would have died countless times over myself if my friend hadn’t decided, in his last moments, to entrust it to me.”

“Why would he give you one eye?”

“Because I’d lost one of mine, and he was dying. He gave me one of his to help me protect our teammate.”

Letting out a long breath, Kakashi lets the Obito who lives in his head scold him.

“He meant a lot to you,” Sasuke says quietly.

“More than I realized. I didn’t deserve him.” Kakashi chuckles. “You would annoy him, I think. He wasn't very strong or especially smart, but his friends meant everything to him. He only ever managed to push me around once.”

Sasuke doesn’t ask. He won’t ask.

Kakashi answers anyway.

“He told me I was worse than trash for wanting to put completing a mission ahead of saving the life of a friend.” Obito rolls his eyes in the back of his mind, and Kakashi lets the thought of his friend’s annoyance wash away the tightness in his throat. “Then again, I’m the son of the White Fang, Konoha’s great disappointment. Maybe the ones who turn out strange are the most important.”

After a long silence, Sasuke says, “Itachi would have killed your friend.”

“Maybe,” Kakashi allows. “But maybe, if Obito had survived, he could have grown strong and stopped Itachi. We’ll never know, I suppose. Obito is dead and Itachi is gone regardless.”

* * *

The return to their official team goes better than it should have.

Sakura still has a blatant crush on Sasuke, but her latest assignment was with Gai and his team. She must have actually paid attention. That boy Gai is training, the one who’s Gai in miniature, has a crush on Sakura a bit like the one she has one Sasuke, and as one-sided as it is, Sakura seems to have recognized in him some of her responses to Sasuke.

Lee’s crush is worse by virtue of Gai’s influence, but the boy has a good heart. Gai assured him Sakura wasn’t cold toward Lee, which was a pleasant surprise, and spending time with Tenten, who doesn’t have as intense an interest in Sasuke, seems to have reminded her that there’s a world beyond her crush.

There’s a good kunoichi in her, waiting to outgrow Sasuke and make her own way, and Gai is sure that woman is closer at hand than Kakashi thinks.

Given Gai’s opinion of Kakashi’s worldview, though, he probably thinks Kakashi expects her to become her own person when she’s forty.

So Sakura swoons a little when she sees Sasuke and gushes a bit more than even she wants to be doing but otherwise keeps it together. A solid start.

And then Naruto arrives.

The moment he and Sasuke spot each other, Naruto shouts, “Sasuke! I learned a cool new jutsu! I hope you’re ready to be amazed!”

A moment later, there’s an aborted blast of chakra, and Kakashi finds himself looking at two fried genin and Sasuke.

Sakura turns on Naruto immediately, the two of them launching into one of their usual arguments about how mean Sakura is and how dumb Naruto is. Kakashi lets them fight.

_“Tch!”_

Sasuke is rolling his eyes, but the corner of his mouth is lifted in the start of a smile.

Kakashi lets himself start to hope.

* * *

Pressing an ice pack to his forehead, Kakashi closes his eyes and enjoys the relief of the cold creeping through his skull. “Naruto challenges Sasuke’s isolation. He’s loud and annoying and clumsy, but he’s hard to ignore.” 

Iruka nods. “He certainly is.”

They’re eating in Kakashi’s apartment. It’s small, but Iruka seems perfectly content to sit at Kakashi’s table and eat from Kakashi’s plain bowls.

“It’s interesting, though, Sensei,” Kakashi continues. “Sasuke is learning that if he holds out an olive branch, Naruto will usually take it.”

“It isn’t always a genuine olive branch, is it?” Iruka asks. He quirks a smile at Kakashi. “That’s half the fun for him, I bet.”

From another shinobi, Kakashi might hear a condemnation. Sasuke enjoys tormenting Naruto. It’s a sign he’s falling out of step with his team.

From Iruka, who’s still grinning and has as many if not more reprimands for playing pranks as Naruto, it’s understanding.

“I can’t tell if they have crushes on each other or if they’re just being twelve. They’re relentless. Sakura almost threw a bucket at Sasuke today. _Sakura.”_

“Anko likes her,” Iruka offers. “She keeps asking how the violent little cherry blossom is doing.”

“Iruka,” Kakashi whines, “Anko wasn’t supposed to like them. I don’t want to think about what she’d think Sakura would be good at.”

“To be fair, she didn’t really like Naruto. I think that had more to do with him eating her mochi than actual dislike, though.”

“That isn’t helping.”

“No, I guess it isn’t.” Iruka laughs, warm and genuine, and Kakashi lets the sound wash over him. In the face of bearing the weight of one boy’s future, Iruka’s simple joy relaxes the fist perpetually clenched in Kakashi’s chest.

* * *

Sakura is getting left behind. She works hard, but she just doesn’t have the reserves of chakra that the boys have. It’s unfair to have her train with them and get constantly outdone, but Kakashi can’t find a better arrangement. He can’t trade her to another team- and he wouldn’t if he could. She just needs something more than he can give her.

Kakashi considers calling in a tokubetsu jounin to tutor her, but none of the ones he knows and thinks could teach her well has a specialty she’s interested in and has a knack for.

He doesn’t let Sakura know he’s as frustrated about her stumped progress as she is. This seems like a good idea. She’s as determined as Naruto and Sasuke- less erratic, so she’s unlikely to do something dangerous if she found out he doesn’t know what to do with her- but she’s smart enough to devise a plan to get better that could get herself hurt instead.

Kakashi is still at a loss one evening after another day of watching the boys progress and Sakura struggle when he finds himself sitting on a bench near one where she and Iruka are sitting. Curious, Kakashi settles in to eavesdrop.

“-think you aren’t as good as they are, huh?” Iruka’s asking.

Sakura nods.

“Well, it’s true you don’t have as much chakra as they do.” Iruka scratches at his cheek. “But you know, Sasuke comes from a family with a long line of powerful shinobi. And Naruto has a lot more stamina because of all that chakra, which means he can practice more before he has to stop. They’ve got years of practice already in their blood.”

“So it’s impossible,” Sakura supplies. “I’m always going to hold them back.”

Kakashi winces. This is what he’s been trying to avoid.

“As long as you try to be like them, yes.” Sakura wilts, but Iruka lays a hand on her shoulder. “You’re your own kind of ninja, Sakura-chan. Don’t worry about Sasuke and Naruto.”

She deflates. “I don’t want to be the weak one.”

Iruka sits quietly for a long moment. “You know, when I realized I wouldn't make jounin if I spent my time teaching, I was relieved. Shinobi are supposed to want to be strong. We’re supposed to do our duty without flinching. And out on missions, that means killing.

“But, you know, I don’t have to be a jounin to be a good ninja. I don’t have a killing intent, and that helped me be a good teacher. Do you know why?”

“Because kids aren’t afraid of you?”

“That’s part of it.” Retrieving his hand, Iruka rests both of his palms on his knees. “One of the dangers of teaching pre-genin is they often make dangerous mistakes. Remember how often Naruto’s shuriken used to land near my head?”

Sakura nods. “And kunai.”

“And kunai. If I were jounin-level, that could be dangerous. Shinobi who spend a lot of time on missions have trouble recognizing accidents sometimes. Because I stay in the village, a shuriken flying at my head doesn’t make me think someone’s trying to kill me. It makes me think I need to avoid it and encourage that student to practice more.”

“But I don’t want to be a teacher, Sensei.”

Iruka’s laugh is as warm and genuine as it is with Kakashi. “I’m a little sad about that, you know. You’d be a great teacher if you wanted to be, but it’s for the best that you don’t. Konoha needs you out there with Sasuke and Naruto.”

“But you said-”

“I said it took me a long time to find my way. I’m no good at fighting, so I make sure the ones who are, are the best they can be. And you, Sakura-chan, are going to be just as strong as your teammates. You’ll find your place.”

Pulling up her legs, Sakura rests her feet on the edge of the seat and wraps her arms around her knees. “How do you know that?” she asks. “And besides, you’re my teacher. You’re supposed to cheer me up.”

Kakashi watches Iruka shake his head.

“You’re right; I am your teacher. That’s how I know how much potential you have.” Iruka nudges her with his shoulder until she looks at him. “You’re smart, Sakura. Smarter than Sasuke. Maybe even smarter than Kakashi-sensei. You're so smart, I used to give you harder written tests.”

“What?”

“You have an incredible, innate understanding of chakra. You learn quickly and remember more than your classmates, so I’d give you questions that would make you think.” He looks away from Sakura and up to the sky. “I’ve always been fond of the students who need help finding their way, but most of them are like me- they aren’t going to be great heroes. And you know, I want to be remembered as a teacher who did well by his students, but I want to be remembered as a good teacher, too. Geniuses like Sasuke don’t count; I had very little to do with his talents. A genius isn't a legacy, but I can point to you and say, ‘You see that kunoichi? She was my student.’

“I’m sorry to put this on you, Sakura,” he continues, looking back at her, “but I won’t be content with my star pupil never being a jounin like she could be. So make your teacher proud and become a great kunoichi for me, okay?”

There’s no frustration in Iruka. His chakra is calm, and when he pats Sakura’s knee, Sakura’s own chakra steadies.

“I’m your legacy?” she asks. Her voice is so quiet, Kakashi has to struggle to hear her.

“You are!" Iruka tells her brightly. "You’re going to find your place. I know it.”

It isn’t entirely surprising that Sakura throws herself at Iruka, wrapping her arms around him hard enough that his expression twitches with pain as he returns the hug.

When she eventually pulls away, Iruka gently ruffles her hair. “You’re still young, Sakura-chan, so you can take your time. Just don’t make me wait too long, okay?”

Sakura nods sharply. “I’ll won’t!”

Buoyed, she gets up and runs off, her chakra already gathering in her hands like she’s preparing herself to go out and fight the world itself to give her what she’s due.

“Was that good enough for you, Kakashi-sensei?” Iruka asks, voice pitched to carry.

Caught, Kakashi gets up and joins Iruka on his bench. “You know something, don’t you?”

“I do.”

Iruka doesn’t volunteer to share, and when Kakashi looks over at him curiously, he only says, “It’s better if I don’t tell you. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

* * *

Kakashi watches one of the Sannin march through Konoha and feels a flare of admiration and fear.

“A surprise indeed, Iruka-sensei,” he says to himself.

* * *

Tsunade is yelling. Hiruzen is frowning. Iruka looks exhausted. Shizune and the pig are looking back and forth between Tsunade and the Third. The ANBU are braced for a fight.

Kakashi wishes he weren’t here.

“You know why I won’t take your place! Ask Jiraiya!”

“I cannot choose a man whose renown is now for writing erotica to lead Konoha,” Hiruzen points out. “You’re my only other student, Tsunade. Unless you think Orochimaru would be a good hokage?”

Kakashi looks toward the window and idly considers his odds of escape if he made a run for it.

 _Naruto isn’t going to like this,_ he thinks, accepting that he’d never make it. Never mind that Naruto is twelve and the Third has had to be hokage twice. Naruto seems to think the Third will live forever- the mantle of hokage will pass directly from Hiruzen to Naruto.

 _No,_ Kakashi revises. He’s refusing to think anything else. After all, Naruto’s been grieving for nameless, faceless parents all his life. How much will it hurt when a man he loves dies?

They’ll never make a world where children don’t have to fight and die. That’s what shinobi do, even little ones who cry when they should be stoic and yell when they should be silent.

Kakashi doesn’t mind that he’s a tool to keep Konoha safe and has been since before any of his genin graduated from the Academy. He’s proud that he’s been of service to his village. He’s going to make sure Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke do the same.

It hurts to think he might see their names carved on the memorial stone, though. He was never as small and lively as they are. He couldn’t have been.

Looking away from Hiruzen and Tsunade, Kakashi finds Iruka.

_How does he survive knowing so many of the shinobi he gives to us to train will die before he does?_

Kakashi isn’t a coward, but he never asks Iruka. He doesn’t want to know the answer.

From Iruka’s unusually weak posture, he was probably trying to keep the peace earlier; he was already here and exhausted when Kakashi was summoned.

A break in the arguing gives Kakashi the opportunity he needs to find out why he was brought in, though he can guess.

“Hokage-sama, I hate to butt in, but I’m not sure why I’m here.”

Hiruzen turns toward him with a look that suggests he forgot Kakashi was here.

“I thought, since the world’s greatest medical-nin is here, you might want to ask if she’d take an apprentice.”

Iruka doesn’t react, but Kakashi knows he must have mentioned Kakashi’s fruitless efforts to find Sakura a jounin to learn from.

Their efforts, really, he amends. Iruka has all sorts of connections from being a teacher and working at the Missions Desk, and he’s put them all at Kakashi’s disposal.

Studying under Tsunade is a good idea. Sasuke and Naruto, especially Naruto, would benefit from having a strong medical-nin at hand. Sakura would like being able to help like that, and her natural chakra control would make her capable enough that she might manage to keep Naruto from dying too early.

Getting Sakura to agree to it won’t be the hard part, though.

“Hiruzen!” Tsunade snaps. “I’m not mentoring a genin.”

“But you haven’t even met her,” Hiruzen replies. “You’ll like Sakura.” He tilts his head and studies her for a long moment. “You’ll have to meet her teammates as well, of course.”

“I just said-”

Hiruzen speaks over her, something Kakashi has rarely seen him do. “This isn’t a request. I’m getting old, Tsunade, and the world is becoming a more dangerous place again. At least spend a few days here.”

Kakashi watches Iruka look away.

Hiruzen’s death will be hard on all of them, but Iruka is something of a foster son of his. It’s good that Hiruzen has children who will carry on his legacy- Asuma especially is fond of Iruka. He keeps it to himself, but Kakashi has spotted him hanging around in Iruka’s classroom during a few too many lunch breaks not to know there’s a third, unofficial Sarutobi child.

“Let's get this over with, then,” Tsunade grumbles. ”The sooner you realize I’m not staying, the sooner we can leave.”

* * *

Tsunade’s first meeting with Team 7 is worse and better than Kakashi would have hoped.

She does take to Sakura.

She seems ambivalent to Sasuke.

She's probably going to kill Naruto.

“Hey, Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto says, an unmistakable glint of trouble-making in his eye as he squares off with a woman who could easily punt him into the next village, “your Sharingan can see through genjutsu, right?”

Kakashi hesitates. He already knows where this is going, but with Naruto, the only way out is through.

Without waiting for an answer, Naruto continues, “So you could see what this granny really looks like if you wanted to.”

Tsunade opens her mouth with a look of fury.

Naruto quickly adds, “But you wouldn’t want to, would you? After all, she's probably lying to us for a good reason, right?”

Kakashi sighs and takes a step to the side in time to dodge the mound of earth that rockets up from the place where Tsunade’s fist connected with the ground.

Naruto starts shouting from his new spot in a nearby tree.

Tsunade shouts back.

Kakashi thinks about Iruka leading his class of noisy genin and wonders if there’s a trick to herding cats he just hasn’t learned.

* * *

For whatever reason, Tsunade does stay, and she does agree to teach Sakura- on the condition that she doesn’t have to have anything to do with Naruto.

“It’s going to take some time for her to accept him,” the Third tells Kakashi. “But she will. Iruka did, after all, and Tsunade’s memories aren’t all painful.”

Kakashi lets that go without saying anything. He isn’t sure he believes the Third, but it isn’t his place to argue.

* * *

Eventually, the chuunin exams begin, and Kakashi nominates Team 7.

He didn’t tell Iruka ahead of time, and there’s a moment in the middle of Iruka’s vocal objections that Kakashi begins to wonder if he should have said something. He isn’t sure why; this is his decision as their jounin. Iruka has been helpful as a backup, but he’s no longer their teacher.

After the team passes the pre-test, Iruka meets him on a rooftop. He bows his head, and Kakashi marvels at Iruka’s ease in admitting he was wrong.

They eat dinner at Kakashi’s apartment. Kakashi cooks and Iruka watches him from the chair Kakashi has started thinking of as Iruka’s chair.

Kakashi doesn’t like that he’s doing it, but with Iruka beaming at him as Kakashi describes what he’s making, he finds he’d rather wallow after Iruka leaves.

* * *

Before the exam begins, Kakashi takes Sasuke aside. Naruto is begging for Iruka to buy him ramen after Naruto beats the test, and Sakura is speaking quietly with Shizune. If Kakashi overheard them correctly, Tsunade is off somewhere losing all her money, so she asked Shizune to tell Sakura she better do well.

“Well,” Kakashi says, at a loss. “Try hard and don’t die.”

Sasuke looks up at him with his blandest expression. “That’s it? Your advice is ‘try hard and don’t die’?”

Kakashi shrugs. “I’ve taught you everything I could. The rest is up to you guys, Sasuke-kun.”

“You aren’t going to warn me not to leave Naruto behind?”

“I could if you’d like me to, but you already know you won’t be able to shake him, don’t you?” At Sasuke’s grumbled acknowledgement, Kakashi feels himself smile. “You’re a good team. Try not to make me look bad.”

“Why? It’s not like Iruka-sensei doesn’t already think you’re great.”

_How does he-_

“That’s not- I never said-”

Sasuke smirks at him. It’s an expression that’s eerily similar to Naruto’s. “That’s so embarrassing.”

Rather than dig himself deeper, Kakashi waves Sasuke away. “Go bother your teammates.”

As Sasuke slouches over time where Sakura and Naruto are waiting, Gai lands behind Kakashi.

“Kakashi! We’re all waiting together.”

“I’ll be right there.”

He can almost feel Gai’s joy at whatever he’s about to say next.

“Iruka-kun is already there.”

“The fact that you’re relying on a twelve year old’s baseless taunt to bait me doesn’t speak well of your abilities, Gai.”

He gets a shouted reminder about the power of youth for his efforts, but Kakashi does follow him to the room where Asuma and Kurenai are waiting.

There’s no sign of Iruka.

“Gai… What was the point of lying?”

Kurenai sighs. “He and Asuma had a bet. It’s better if you don’t ask.”

Kakashi resists the urge to sigh. This is going to be a long day for all of Team 7.

* * *

The long day becomes a bad one. Then a series of bad ones.

Sasuke gets bitten. Anko tells them Orochimaru is behind it. Tsunade yells at everyone she sees. The Third spends a lot of time looking older than he is. Naruto shifts between frightened and furious. Sakura almost never leaves the hospital. If she isn’t working with Tsunade or Shizune, she’s sitting with Sasuke.

They all watch Tsunade try to undo whatever Orochimaru did to him.

Kakashi meets Jiraiya, and he almost wishes he hadn’t. The memory will always be tarnished by the knowledge that he came because Kakashi’s student was lying in bed, possibly dying.

Rock Lee and Hyuuga Hinata may never fully recover from their battles.

Anko only gets more upset.

The Third is killed.

At the height of it all, Sasuke goes missing.

* * *

Pakkun finds Team 7 by a waterfall. Kakashi follows him with horror growing in his belly.

_Naruto and Sasuke are fighting. The kyuubi’s chakra is coming free. Sasuke looks like a monster._

That was Pakkun’s report, and when Kakashi finally reaches his students, he’s only a little relieved.

Naruto and Sasuke are lying on the ground, bloodied and unconscious but no more monstrous than any other genin. If anything, they look smaller than they should.

Sakura is kneeling between them, her chakra flowing unsteadily from her hands as she tries to put them back together.

She fights him when he puts his hand on her shoulder.

“It’s enough,” he tries to tell her. “They’re alive. You’ve done enough.”

She ignores him and keeps trying to heal them even after her chakra runs out.

Kakashi squeezes her shoulder. “Let’s bring them home, Sakura-chan. They won’t get better here.”

She doesn’t say anything for a long time. When she does respond, it’s with a slow nod.

Kakashi considers letting her carry one of her teammates but decides against it.

“Run ahead and get help. I have to move them slowly.”

He doesn’t want to send her away, but this is the best he can do. If he had a third arm, he’d carry her, too.

Instead, she’ll have to run on her own shaking legs.

After she disappears, Kakashi looks back at the rest of his team. He picks them up gently and holds them close, one cradled over each shoulder. They ought to weigh more. As important as they are, they ought to weigh more.

He doesn’t remember the journey back; one moment, he’s gathering up his wounded students and the next, he’s handing them over to the medical-nin Sakura fetched.

Without their weight on his shoulders, he feels too light.

* * *

Kakashi lays an arm around Sakura’s shoulders as the medical-nin take Naruto and Sasuke away. She hasn’t cried yet, and from the way she’s staring listlessly, the tears won’t come for a while yet.

* * *

Eventually, Iruka joins them. He doesn’t say anything when he appears, just nods at Kakashi then sits down next to Sakura.

She lays her head on his chest wordlessly, and Kakashi realizes Iruka isn’t wearing his flak jacket.

_He must have known she’d want to be close._

How long did it take him to learn to take his jacket off so injured students can rest their heads on him comfortably?

“Has anyone taken a look at you?” Iruka asks her.

Sakura doesn’t answer, so Kakashi does.

“They made sure there was nothing seriously wrong. The worst of it is her chakra is depleted. The rest are just scratches.”

Iruka lays a hand on Sakura’s arm, and her skin heals over.

“I’m not a medical-nin like you, but I can do this much.”

That’s what breaks the dam. Sakura sobs quietly, but her shoulders shake from the force of it. She seems to cry for hours, and for all Kakashi knows, she does.

When she runs out of tears, she says, voice thick, “I should be helping.”

“No,” Iruka chides gently. “You’re exactly where you should be.”

“I couldn’t stop them, Sensei.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“But-”

“You’re only responsible for yourself, Sakura-chan. They chose to fight each other and left you to pick up the pieces.” Iruka shakes his head. “We’ll have to yell at Naruto about that when he wakes up, right?”

Sakura sniffs. “Sasuke, too?”

Iruka chuckles and pats her arm. “Sasuke, too.”

That must be all she needed, because she falls asleep soon after.

Kakashi watches Iruka rub her arm soothingly, the gesture entirely unconscious.

_It must be nice to be someone who touches freely._

“Kakashi-san?”

Blinking, Kakashi realizes Iruka is frowning at him.

“Did anyone check on you?” Iruka asks.

Kakashi shrugs. “Maybe? I’m fine.”

“That isn’t a ‘yes’.”

Frowning to himself, Iruka gently rearranges Sakura so she’s propped up by the wall and comes around to kneel between Kakashi’s knees. He doesn’t ask for Kakashi’s hands, just takes them.

The warmth of his chakra is soothing.

“See, Sensei?” Kakashi asks. “Fine.”

Iruka doesn’t let go of his hands. “It’s harder when you’ve seen their faces,” he says quietly. “They can’t be weapons when you’ve seen them laugh. And cry. And ask you if they did well. If we were really meant to die so young, we’d never let them leave uncovered.”

Kakashi could argue with that but doesn’t want to, so he doesn’t.

“Some shinobi cover their entire faces,” Iruka continues. “The ANBU do. You could wear your own kind of mask and keep yourself safe behind it if you wanted to. But here you are, not quite unreachable.” His hand moves slowly as he lays his fingers on the edge of Kakashi’s mask under his right eye. “You haven’t been a tool for a long time, you know. You’re their precious teacher, and there’s no coming back from that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You think I can’t see what you’re thinking? They become our children, Kakashi-san. They fight with us and die for us, and if we’re worth anything at all as teachers, we love them through it.” Shaking his head, Iruka reclaims the hand he let go of to touch Kakashi’s face. He looks down at Kakashi’s hands as if they have something to say. If they do, Kakashi doesn’t hear it. “Whatever happened out there… They’re going to need you to help them through it.”

It hurts to swallow, so Kakashi does it twice. “What if I can’t?”

“You have to.”

That’s all there is to it. A monumental, impossible task, given to him in the gentle voice of a man who gives up the children he loves to a life that kills them.

Closing his eyes, Kakashi lets Iruka hold his hands. It’s cold in the hospital, and Iruka seems content as he is.

* * *

All of Team 7 survives. 

Somehow, Naruto and Sasuke don’t wake up frothing at the mouth for the other one’s blood. Instead, when they see each other again, all they do is nod.

As he promised, Iruka yells at them. Sasuke seems taken aback by it, and Kakashi watches with more sadness than amusement at the prodigy try to figure out why he’s being yelled at by the teacher he thinks doesn’t have much love for him.

Both boys apologize to Sakura; they even mean it.

* * *

All of Konoha mourns the Third.

Kakashi invites himself over to Iruka’s apartment. Asuma was there earlier; the apartment reeks of his cigarettes.

Iruka’s been crying, but he seems to be done now.

They eat together without speaking, then sit without speaking, and still without speaking, Iruka climbs into Kakashi’s lap. This isn’t the way they want to do this, and they both know it. The spark in Iruka’s eyes Kakashi has always liked is gone. He’s still Iruka, but he’s less.

Kakashi tips them over onto their sides and holds Iruka to his chest, waiting patiently until the apologies and the accusations stop.

“Sorry, Sensei,” Kakashi tells the top of his head. “I’m a bit of a romantic, you see. I’d like it better if you weren’t looking at me like you think I’m going to make you forget for a while then disappear.”

Iruka sighs. “No, I’m sorry. I was out of line. You can let go now.”

“I’d like to do that, but if I do, you’ll try to kick me out for my own good.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Ah, but I can. So I’m going to stay like this until you promise to be nice to me and let me stay.”

“I could just stab you.”

“That would be very mean, though.”

The tension in Iruka’s body dissolves, so Kakashi tentatively lets his arms relax.

Iruka has to tilt his head back to glare at him, but the spark is back. It’s dimmer than it used to be, but it’s there. It came back once; it can again.

Kakashi doesn’t kiss him that day, but he knows he will soon.

* * *

The day they’re meant to get their first mission after the chuunin exams, Naruto derails their plans and gets into a fight with Tsunade about being hokage.

Team 7’s first mission, assigned to them by the Fifth herself, is to repair the damage Tsunade did to the street when she hit it and sent Naruto flying.

* * *

Sakura continues to train with Tsunade and Shizune.

Naruto goes off with Jiraiya.

Sasuke turns up at Kakashi’s door at dawn the morning after Naruto leaves, his eyes fixed on Kakashi’s face, “I’m going to kill Itachi. If I’m not ready to do it by the time Naruto gets back, he told me he’s going to do it for me. I won’t let that happen.”

Kakashi blinks at him. “You want me to train you?”

“I want to know how I can kill Itachi and not have to leave Konoha.” He lifts his chin as he adds, “I can’t make Sakura deal with Naruto on her own.”

“Well,” Kakashi drawls, enjoying the warmth of Sasuke’s regard, “the first step is going to be becoming a jounin so the hokage knows you can go out on your own.”

“Then I’ll become a jounin.”

“That’s a good plan. You have to reach chuunin first, though, you know.”

Sasuke narrows his eyes. “Are you going to help me or do I have to ask someone else?”

He really will find someone else, but that only makes Kakashi happier.

Stepping aside, Kakashi gestures for Sasuke to step into the apartment. “Well, you better come in, Sasuke-kun. If you’re going to become strong enough to beat Itachi and keep Naruto in line, you’re going to need a lot of training.”

* * *

Missions in the Land of Water always leave Kakashi cold in a way that lingers for weeks after he’s returned. The cold doesn’t bother him, but the unending mist is unsettling. The longer he has to spend in it, unable to see and sometimes unable to tell up from down, the longer it takes to reorient himself when he gets home.

It helps, he’s found, to have someone else to help.

Despite being pinned to his own door, Iruka smiles up at him. “Welcome home.”

His hands are warm on Kakashi’s shoulders; his lips chase away the lingering cold as he kisses the corner of Kakashi’s mouth.

He sucks in a sharp breath when Kakashi slides his hands under Iruka’s shirt.

“Cold,” he complains. He doesn’t try to pull away.

“How are the kids?” Kakashi asks as Iruka pulls down his mask. He wants the kiss he knows is coming, but he hasn’t been in touch with Konoha for almost six months. “Were they good?”

Iruka only smiles wider. “They were terrible. Sakura’s parents are treating them to a little vacation, courtesy of the hokage. I was invited, but I have too much work to do. And the kids deserve to be spoiled for a little while without their teacher keeping them in line.”

“Oh?”

“What do you mean, ‘Oh?’”

“You didn’t have any ulterior motives, Iruka-sensei? The hokage didn’t tell you I’d be back soon?”

Humming, Iruka presses a quick kiss to the corner of Kakashi’s mouth. “She might have mentioned it. Unfortunately, I really do need to get a lot of work done. The latest group at the Academy is all over the place, I have to take over another teacher’s classes while he’s out sick and I don’t understand what he’s trying to do, Tsunade wants me to add a screening for students who might have an aptitude for medical training-”

Kakashi lets Iruka step away from the door so they can go lie down on the futon under the soft blanket he gave Iruka for his last birthday. He gladly lets Iruka get his frustrations off his chest, the sound of Iruka’s ire comfortable and easily interrupted when Kakashi tilts his head for a kiss.

Curling up with Iruka behind him took time to grow accustomed to, but now that he has, Kakashi looks forward to coming home and being held for a while.

He’s drifting off to the sound of Iruka muttering to himself about insufficient lesson plans when the wards go off and Iruka’s door slams open.

Three uninvited guests bound in, and Kakashi doesn’t bother to pretend he isn’t the little spoon.

Sasuke reacts first. “This is…”

“Gross,” Sakura finishes.

“Iruka-sensei,” Naruto whines. “Do you have to do that? I only have two eyes, you know.”

“Try knocking next time,” Iruka advises. “Wait. Why are you here? You’re supposed to be at the onsen with Sakura’s parents.”

Sakura and Sasuke turn to Naruto, who scratches the back of his neck and laughs nervously.

Iruka sighs. “I don’t want to know. Kakashi just got back, and we’re busy.”

Three faces recoil in horror.

“Iruka-sensei!”

“Sensei!”

“Please stop... ”

Kakashi shakes his head, but he can’t be bothered to mind. He’s finally warm, he knows up from down, and he’s going to take a nap with his favorite person.

Things could be worse.

Iruka sighs. “Come back tomorrow- after you’ve apologized for whatever you did.”

A two-person chorus of complaints follows, answered by increasingly annoyed rebuttals from Iruka.

Uninterested in joining the fray, Kakashi watches Sasuke, who’s also erring on the side of not getting involved. He looks good, not quite happy but closer than Kakashi has seen him. Itachi is still out there, as are other enemies of Konoha, but Sasuke’s home where he belongs- caught between Naruto and Sakura, looking increasingly uncomfortable as Iruka gets closer and closer to the kind of annoyed that will make him get up long enough to force their guests out.

Sure enough, Naruto and Sakura keep pushing him, and Iruka throws the blanket off so he can chase them out.

By the time he gets back, Kakashi is dozing happily.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of doing your paperwork just because you’re cute,” Iruka warns him. He says it every time Kakashi comes back. Kakashi wouldn’t be home without the reminder.

Humming to himself, he lets himself drift the rest of the way off, content in the knowledge that all is as well as it can be.

**Author's Note:**

> The background concepts for this were "Sasuke's canonical arc is untenable" and "@Kishimoto Masashi I know you suck at writing women but whew my man you do remember Sakura exists, right? Right??"
> 
> I realize the new timeline I've made is a disaster and messes up points like how Tsunade comes to be hokage because of Naruto, but needs must
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](https://asotin.tumblr.com) if you like! I'm asking the tough questions, like whether Konoha has accountants


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